**** Devil Dinosaur (Gigantic Reptile) ****

Unknown

I wanted to get some better numbers for Prehistoric Arms, so I wrote a program to do a Monte Carlo analysis on the power. If that doesn't mean anything to you, I ran a simulation of the power over a million random boards to see what happens. Here's what I got:

Rank 1

any match: 9.83% match 3: 9.30% match 4: 0.55% match 5: 0.19% match 6: 0.02% match 7: 0.00% match 8: 0.00% AP per success: 3.18 average AP return per use: 0.31

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Rank 2

any match: 17.34% match 3: 16.91% match 4: 1.09% match 5: 0.39% match 6: 0.05% match 7: 0.01% match 8: 0.00% match 9: 0.00% AP per success: 3.31 average AP return per use: 0.57

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Rank 3

any match: 23.74% match 3: 23.92% match 4: 1.59% match 5: 0.58% match 6: 0.10% match 7: 0.02% match 8: 0.00% match 9: 0.00% match 10: 0.00% AP per success: 3.44 average AP return per use: 0.82

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Rank 4

any match: 29.54% match 3: 30.61% match 4: 2.10% match 5: 0.82% match 6: 0.15% match 7: 0.03% match 8: 0.01% match 9: 0.00% match 10: 0.00% AP per success: 3.57 average AP return per use: 1.05

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Rank 5

any match: 36.79% match 3: 39.48% match 4: 2.97% match 5: 1.18% match 6: 0.25% match 7: 0.06% match 8: 0.01% match 9: 0.00% match 10: 0.00% match 11: 0.00% AP per success: 3.76 average AP return per use: 1.38

Yes, some of the match 3 percentages are higher than the any match percentage. That just means that there were times where it had more than one match 3 on one use of the power. In any case, the AP conversion rate is not very high at any rank, but it is significantly higher for rank 5 vs. rank 3. So if you're going to pair him with other characters that have better red and green powers and he is the only purple, then it may make sense to go with rank 5 purple. I did not do any analysis on what kinds of layouts are better; all this was on completely random boards with no matches.

Here's a few other things my analysis doesn't take into account:

• It doesn't take into account that you could have an existing critical tile on the board
• It doesn't take into account any possible locked tiles
• I don't know what happens if a color is missing from the board. My simulation just didn't swap that one color.
• In calculating matches, it's the initial matches only; it doesn't calculate any cascades or matches with created critical tiles; this will make the power a little better than my analysis shows
• It doesn't count extra AP gained from clearing rows on a match 4

Hope all that helps someone.

Renaldoo

Will he eventually be added to normal heroic tokens, or was he only available via the anniversary event?

Unknown

http://www.d3pforums.com/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=17871#p236598

simonsez

IceIX wrote:

Actual pulled-from-tokens covers are an even spread. The rewards from progression and placement favored some dino dancin' though, hence most players having a majority of Purple versus anything else.

I believe you believe that, but it simply can't be true. Even though it's a relatively small sample, when I total up alliance mates and they report no greens and 23 purples (seriously), this defies all laws of probability if in fact greens and purples were dropping at an even rate.

Unknown

simonsez wrote:

IceIX wrote:

Actual pulled-from-tokens covers are an even spread. The rewards from progression and placement favored some dino dancin' though, hence most players having a majority of Purple versus anything else.

I believe you believe that, but it simply can't be true. Even though it's a relatively small sample, when I total up alliance mates and they report no greens and 23 purples (seriously), this defies all laws of probability if in fact greens and purples were dropping at an even rate.

Yes i call Tinyshitty in this. I got 2 10 packs, one got me 2 purple another got me 4, all together i got 6 purple cover from 2 10 pack and no red or green. ****?

Unknown

Our alliance reports similar results. One green cover among 20 people, and a virtual flood of purple. So unless there are alliances out there who have crazy amounts of green, I believe the tokens skewed to purple as well.

Unknown

My Dino is sitting at 035, and I sold a couple purple covers.

Here are the final states of my alliances Devil Dinosaur's (I don't think any of us buys covers:

325 (may have sold purples)
353 (may have sold reds)
245 (may have sold purples)
235 (may have sold purples)
035 (may have sold purples)
035 (sold 2 purples)
002
034
022
043
535 (may have sold green or purples)
345 (may have sold purples)
423
011
132
134
032
125 (may have sold purples)
325 (may have sold purples)
213

That breaks down to 30-53-74 (76 counting my sold 2).

12 got the 2400 Purple progression, and all 20 got the Red and Purple alliance covers from the over all event and Tex Mex (and most likely we all but one got the purple individual covers from Tex Mex).

You take those 20 and 51 away and we get 30-33-25 (and untold sold purples). So it seems in a random sample of 20 people it is fairly even (though certainly harder to tell with the possible sold covers).

_RiO_

Xeonic-Ice wrote:

Pylgrim wrote:

There's no reason to stress. Dino is not and likely will never be a truly playable character. He is decent but not "let's spend several hundreds of thousands of Iso to level him up" decent.

I totally understand what you're saying, but I'm more concerned about how a limited character is rolled out. There's a finite number of possible tokens given out for the entire event. There's a good chance that, even if you managed to get every single available token, you could still end up with an incomplete character. To me, that's not fun and doesn't make me feel like I have accomplished anything. Especially when someone opens a 10 pack and gets 6 additional dinos. Awesome for that person, but I feel there should be a way for me to earn it if I'm a hardcore player.

Hey; at the very least you got some Dino covers...

CrookedKnight

Honestly, I'm not sure my 2/3/2 Dino is doing me more good than an open roster spot would.

Unknown

So I know people don't recommend leveling 4* characters past a certain point, partly due to the negative ramifications it can give you in PVE but also because at some point, the extra damage isn't entirely necessary. I manage to get Devil Dino to 3/5/5 after the anniversary stuff. Currently I have Cap and GSBW at 166, Patch at 153, and a few others around 130 (Sentry, Pun, Panther). I was thinking about putting the ISO into Devil Dino next and was wondering what level people would recommend getting him to.

Sandmaker

Grizzlegom wrote:

So I know people don't recommend leveling 4* characters past a certain point, partly due to the negative ramifications it can give you in PVE but also because at some point, the extra damage isn't entirely necessary. I manage to get Devil Dino to 3/5/5 after the anniversary stuff. Currently I have Cap and GSBW at 166, Patch at 153, and a few others around 130 (Sentry, Pun, Panther). I was thinking about putting the ISO into Devil Dino next and was wondering what level people would recommend getting him to.

I think you have to consider why you want to level him. He may be a 4*, but his abilities are actually really lackluster. Even at 270, I don't believe he will be better than a 166 Cap or GSBW on offense. His main appeal is that he has a ton of health, and a rather annoying purple, so on defense people might be reluctance to attack into him if they want a fast round. If that's what you want to use him for, then it makes sense to get him to 270 to max his HP and intimidation factor. Although, personally I would probably spend the ISO elsewhere.

john1620b

My recommendation is always 221 if you want other characters to tank for them, 222 if you don't:

When do 4* characters overtake 3* ones in match damage?

They're at 75% strength at 221/222, which is usually plenty. Devil Dino is a bit unique in that he can gain an extra 4,000-5,000 HP by leveling from 221 to 270, which may be worth it, but no 4* abilities gain much by putting in all the ISO for those levels.

hurcules

john1620b wrote:

My recommendation is always 221 if you want other characters to tank for them, 222 if you don't:

When do 4* characters overtake 3* ones in match damage?

They're at 75% strength at 221/222, which is usually plenty. Devil Dino is a bit unique in that he can gain an extra 4,000-5,000 HP by leveling from 221 to 270, which may be worth it, but no 4* abilities gain much by putting in all the ISO for those levels.

With the highest health in the game when maxed, I should think you want to max him out to tank for 3* instead?

vudu3

The only thing Devil Dino has going for him is his giant health pool. Since this is the case you're really hurting yourself by capping him at 221. Go big or go home. if you don't have 344,346 ISO to level him to 270 you might as well leave him at level 70. Event then, there are probably better ISO outlets unless you're extremely late-game.

john1620b

hurcules wrote:

With the highest health in the game when maxed, I should think you want to max him out to tank for 3* instead?

I'm not saying I want him to tank for 3*'s, but just that's my general recommendation for 4*'s. With Devil Dino you probably do want him tanking, which is what I was trying to say about Devil Dino's large health boost in leveling from 221 to 270. For him, it could actually be worth it (if you have the ISO).

With the current X-Force dominance, another consideration is not having your highest character have green as their strongest color. It makes it much easier for X-Force to kill you (not that it's particularly difficult for him anyway). So keeping Devil Dino lower allows you to place another character with a stronger color that X-Force can't use. Not a huge advantage, but it can be useful.

vudu3 wrote:

The only thing Devil Dino has going for him is his giant health pool. Since this is the case you're really hurting yourself by capping him at 221. Go big or go home. if you don't have 344,346 ISO to level him to 270 you might as well leave him at level 70. Event then, there are probably better ISO outlets unless you're extremely late-game.

I disagree: 15,000 health is still nothing to sneeze at, especially with his red/green abilities doing decent damage, and his annoying purple being cast every other turn by the opponent. I do agree that ISO is probably better spent elsewhere, but I believe he'll still be a good tank at 221/222. You can test my theory when I get him there, vudu.

Unknown

Is he considered a weak character? Why?

ThatOneGuyjp189512

KevinMark wrote:

Is he considered a weak character? Why?

because his abilities are not that great and the only real use he has is that he has a ton of HP, so he'd be a good meat shield on hops, that's about it

Unknown

ThatOneGuyjp189512 wrote:

KevinMark wrote:

Is he considered a weak character? Why?

because his abilities are not that great and the only real use he has is that he has a ton of HP, so he'd be a good meat shield on hops, that's about it

5000 damage for 14 AP is bad?

vudu3

KevinMark wrote:

5000 damage for 14 AP is bad?

X-Force does 4,000+ damage and causes cascades for 8 AP. Panther does 3,708 damage to everyone (total of 11,124 damage) for 12 AP. Thor does 4,518 damage to the target plus 2,259 damage to everyone else for 14 AP. I could go on but I won't.

Devil Dino isn't terrible but when you compare damage stats to top-ranking 3* and 4* characters he just doesn't compare well.

He does 2,512 damage for 7 AP--359 damage/AP. If you reduced ability cost to 6 AP and scaled down damage accordingly to 2,153 I think he would fare a lot better. That extra AP cost generally means a third match is necessary which makes him quite a bit slower.

Unknown

KevinMark wrote:

ThatOneGuyjp189512 wrote:

KevinMark wrote:

Is he considered a weak character? Why?

because his abilities are not that great and the only real use he has is that he has a ton of HP, so he'd be a good meat shield on hops, that's about it

5000 damage for 14 AP is bad?

In the high end PvP game, 5 matches need to be able to kill at least one person from 100% to 0%, and even that is kind of a low bar for a 5 match move. This is why TBTI is not a popular move, because killing a guy for 14 red is actually a pretty weak move.